The House Article | Britain needs more hubs to deliver in-person banking

Today, nearly 50 Parliamentary constituencies have no bank branch left (Alamy)

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For many people, that is not just an inconvenience. It has meant losing the ability to bank at all. In coastal and rural communities such as Hayling Island or towns like Emsworth in my Havant constituency, the reality is straightforward: if you cannot bank online and cannot easily travel elsewhere, you are effectively cut off.

The last Conservative government took an effective and important step in response. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 legally mandated access to cash and supported the rollout of banking hubs, a single shared space where multiple banks operate on a rota basis. That was a good start and is already making a big difference. LINK, the organisation responsible for assessing local provision of hubs, has already carried out more than 1,600 community assessments, leading to 276 banking hubs being recommended and delivered.

But the current framework does not go far enough. It defines the problem too narrowly – solely around access to cash. But this is not the same as access to face-to-face banking.

Being able to withdraw or deposit money is only part of what people need. Banking is also about resolving a blocked card, fixing a failed payment, getting help after fraud, or simply speaking to someone when something has gone wrong. All of these are everyday problems raised by constituents to their MPs from across the House.

In particular, there are now over three million cases of banking and payment fraud each year, and the majority begin online. When something does go wrong, being able to speak to someone face-to-face can make the difference between stopping fraud early and losing life savings.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Lives Survey, 3.3m people in the UK do not use online banking. More broadly, a significant minority still relies on physical services, particularly older people, small business owners, people living in rural, suburban and coastal communities, and those who are less digitally confident.

The current rules do not fully reflect this. Under the existing framework, communities are often judged to have sufficient banking provision (and therefore won’t get a banking hub) if there is access to cash – for example, a Post Office or ATM within one kilometre of the high street – despite no access to wider in-person banking services.

As a result, some communities still fall through the cracks: they have access to cash, but not wider banking services. This is not a failure of the model. Banking hubs are working. Instead, it’s a gap in the design, which now needs to be closed.

That’s why I introduced the In-Person Banking Services Bill before Parliament prorogued. It built on the existing framework by ensuring that access to face-to-face banking services, not just access to cash, were put on a statutory footing for the first time. I hope the government will support my Bill – or its aims – in the new session of Parliament, for example via the next Financial Services Bill.

This is not about reversing progress or resisting digital innovation. Online banking works well for many and will continue to do so. But a modern financial system must work for all its users. That means ensuring that those who need in-person support are not left behind as the system evolves.

Securing access to cash was an important first step – and a Conservative success story. Now we need to ensure that people can access in-person banking – reliably, locally, and when they need it. Because no one should be excluded from managing their own money simply because they cannot do it online.

Alan Mak is Conservative MP for the Havant Constituency and a former Treasury minister